Consensus can solve Medical marijuana problems

Montana's medical marijuana law needs numerous clarifications and improvements. Even those of us who helped write it, and who have advocated for the rights of seriously ill patients ever since, agree wholeheartedly with law enforcement, civic leaders and others who now call for change.

In fact, Patients & Families United has proposed improvements to the law in both of the last two legislative sessions. One of our bills, which passed the Senate (but not the House) in 2009, as amended would have created regulatory oversight and auditing of caregivers that pretty much everyone now agrees is sorely needed in a stricter form.

Particularly in light of recent federal policy changes, our law is not working as its proponents hoped, and patients are suffering unnecessarily from problems its vagueness has allowed. The same weaknesses in the law underlie most of the ongoing controversies.

The good news is that for all the complexities involved in medical cannabis — and it is much more complicated than most observers appreciate — consensus is at hand on most of the core issues now making news. Patients and law enforcement officials, for example, have a lot more in common than not, and are largely united on the central questions.

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